Eleanor Wong Siew Yin (born 6 February 1962) is a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an playwright, poet, lawyer and legal academic. She is an associate professor of law at the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

, where she is vice dean of student affairs and director of the legal skills programme. She is also a member of the Remaking Singapore Committee.

Early life and career

A graduate of the

(NUS) Faculty of Law as a Public Service Commission merit scholar, Wong won the Best Oralist (Championship Round) at the 1985

Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, also known as the Jessup Moot or The Jessup, is the oldest and largest international moot competition in the world, attracting participants from almost 700 law schools in more than 90 ...

, where she was a member of the victorious NUS moot team. Wong started her career with the

Commercial Affairs Department The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) is a staff department of the Singapore Police Force (SPF). The department was first established in 1984 as the Commercial Crime Department (CCD), it is the white-collar crimes unit of the SPF. History The d ...

, prosecuting complex commercial and securities frauds. She obtained a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

in corporate law from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

in 1990 and practised in the New York office of

Coudert Brothers Coudert Brothers LLP was a New York-based law firm with a strong international outlook that practiced from 1853 until its dissolution in 2006. History The firm was established in 1853 in New York by three sons of Charles Coudert Sr.: Frederic R ...

before returning to Singapore in 1992. Wong also provided communications consultancy and held several top management portfolios within the television production arena. She has anchored a television current affairs show ''After Hours'', and used to host a radio programme, ''Sex, Rights & Videotape''. Wong has worked as a

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

and an international finance lawyer. Wong also serves as a mentor on the playwright development platform Watch This Space, spearheaded by director-playwright

Chong Tze Chien Chong may refer to: * Chong (surname), the romanization of several Chinese and Korean surnames * Chong or Pear people of Thailand and Cambodia ** Chong language * Chong or Limbu people of eastern Nepal, Bhutan, and northeastern India * ancient Chi ...

, where she first mentored teacher and playwright Lucas Ho. Wong joined NUS in 2002 as director of the legal skills programme.

Plays

Wong's plays have been produced in Singapore and regionally. She is best known for ''Invitation to Treat'' (2003), her trilogy of plays centred on the experiences of the character Ellen Toh, a lesbian lawyer in Singapore. This comprised the plays ''Mergers and Accusations'', ''Wills and Secession'' and ''Jointly and Severably''. ''Mergers and Accusations'' won the National Book Development Council of Singapore Award (Drama) in 1996. In 2005, Firstfruits Publications published the trilogy in book form. Wong made her theatrical debut with her first play, ''Peter's Passionate Pursuit'', which clinched a joint first prize at the NUS-Shell Short Play Competition in 1986. Wong is currently one of two writers-in-residence at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at NUS.

Poems

Wong has also written poems: she contributed 12 to ''y grec'' (2005), a collection co-authored with Madeleine Lee and recently published ''Life – Science'' (2010), 22 poems accompanied by Chinese translations by Enoch Ng and Caleb Kiu. In 2015, ''Wills & Secession'' was selected by '' The Business Times'' as one of the "finest plays in 50 years" alongside productions by

Goh Poh Seng Goh Poh Seng (; July 1936 – 10 January 2010) was a Singaporean dramatist, novelist, doctor and poet, was born in Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya in 1936. He was educated at Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, received his medical degree from Uni ...

Michael Chiang Michael Chiang (born 27 October 1955 in Muar, Malaysia) is a prolific playwright and screenwriter in Singapore. He is known as "Singapore's most famous and successful playwright". From 1990 to 2009, Chiang was the editorial director of Mediacorp ...

and Alfian Sa'at and others.

List of works

* ''Two’s Company or Peter's Passionate Pursuit'' (1986) * ''To Touch the Soul of a God'' (1988) * ''Jackson on a Jaunt, or, Mistaken Identities'' (1989) * ''Exit'' (1990) * ''The Joust'' (1991) * ''Mergers and Accusations'' (1993) * ''Block Sale'' (1996) * ''Wills and Secession'' (1995) * ''Jointly and Severably'' (2003) * ''The Campaign to Confer the Public Star on JBJ'' (2006, revised 2007)

References and notes

External links

Bio details, National University of Singapore
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Eleanor Singaporean dramatists and playwrights Singaporean people of Chinese descent Anglo-Chinese School alumni National University of Singapore alumni Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Singaporean women lawyers 1962 births 20th-century Singaporean lawyers